This seemed to be one of those days where I filled in a lot of answers without fully understanding them. Some will hopefully become clear as I blog, but there’ll no doubt be a few question marks. That aside, I enjoyed this one.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | TROLLEY DOLLIES – TROLL,(I SEE LLOYD)* – Got this one straight away from the definition and anagram part, though wasn’t aware that a TROLL is someone who tries to stir things up on t’Internet. Nice credit-crunch surface reading too! |
| 9 | PICASSO – PIC,AS,SO |
| 10 | SEEMING – SEE,MING |
| 12 | AYR – Hidden in pAYRoll |
| 13 | TRAGIC IRONY – CIGAR<,IR in TONY |
| 15 | GNOCCHI – A course in Perugia, yes, but stuck on the rest! Any ideas? |
| 17 | PERUGIA – 1 in (PRAGUE)* |
| 19 | TRIPLE CROWN – L in TRIPE + CROW,N |
| 22 | LAD – L,A.D |
| 23 | RIPENED – (DNIEPER)* |
| 25 | PORTICO – PORT,ICO[-n] |
| 26 | CONSTITUTIONAL – Double def. |
| Down | |
| 1 | STEPDAUGHTER – UGH in (SPATTERED)* |
| 2 | CONCERTO – ON,CERT in CO. |
| 3 | CLOSET – Not quite sure on this one – ‘Fail to displace inner aspects in concealement like this?’ |
| 4 | PYROMANIAC – Nor this one – ‘Inflammatory person from unknown EU republic stopping avoiding offence’ |
| 5 | BOSS – Double def. |
| 6 | ULTERIOR – (OR RULE IT)* |
| 7 | DE NIRO – OR[-da]INED< – Great clue |
| 11 | GUYS AND DOLLS – Again, wrote this in immediately, but aside from the ‘effigies’ bit, I can’t piece it together |
| 14 | IMPROMPTUS – I + PROMPT in MUS[-ic] |
| 16 | COLONIST – (LION)* in COST |
| 18 | GALLIANO – NAIL in O,LAG, all < |
| 20 | IMPROV – PRO in (VIM)* |
| 21 | NARNIA – A (last letter of Kurosawa),IN,RAN, all < |
| 24 | DRIP – I’m guessing this is right. Is it a double definition? |
CLOSET is lose replacing inside letters. DRIP – you’re right, a ‘cream puff’ is an ineffective person G CON CHI (equiv in Greek to X). Tough, puzzle, very enjoyable and inventive.
PS CON reversed “returned”
4dn: Y[unknown] ROMANIA inside PC [politically correct, ‘avoiding offence’]
Sorry to argue, Nmsindy: chi does look like X but it’s actually ‘ch’, hence the abbreviation ‘Xmas’.
Sorry, missed this one: 11dn: Miss Adelaide and Nathan Detroit are characters in ‘Guys and dolls’.
Not sure I understand the point at 4, Eileen. Quick look in dicts says chi = X and I’ve seen it used quite a bit in the past in puzzles, from memory.
Sorry, Nmsindy: I’m just being my pedantic self. As I said, chi does look like X but is not its equivalent. [Chambers: chi: the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet, representing an aspirated k sound’] It occurs in words like ‘orchestra’, which is a Greek word. No problem about it being used for X in puzzles.
I had much the same reaction to this one. Got there in the end without fully understanding them all, but enjoyed it anyway.
I think the wordplay in 2 Dn should be ONCE + RT in CO.
Great puzzle, with the inventive wordplay we’ve come to expect from Nestor.
Adelaide/Detroit show effigies burnt/stuck with pins, perhaps GUYS AND DOLLS
GUYS, effigies of Guy Fawkes, might be burnt; DOLLS, as in voodoo dolls, would be stuck with pins.